The official source for BookExpo announcements and news delivered by BEA Show Director Steve Rosato.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Pilfered Post from Publishers Lunch

I thought the article below from Publishers Lunch was interesting both as someone involved in the publishing industry and more so as a parent with 2 boys who love both books and gadgets. Both of whom are clamouring for iTouches for upcoming birthday & Holiday presents. I share that because I am very interested to see if they will use those as reading devices aside from the gaming & fun apps they envision using them for right now. I can not begin to tell you how many Pokemon, Bionicle & Star Wars books populate my kids rooms all following the toys or the movies they enjoyed. I am hoping the things they discover through the iTouch will lead them to more books. Because they get enjoyment from reading - they also love so many traditional books like Stuart Little, Roald Dahl, the Magic Tree House books and so much more....

Scholastic Confirms Kids Like Devices--Maybe More than Reading

Scholastic hired Harrison Group to conduct their 2010 survey this spring on reading habits of kids ages 6 through 17. As you would expect, the older kids get, the more they spend leisure time online and with their cell phones rather than reading books for pleasure.

Kids love gadgets, and thus 57 percent "are interested in reading an ebook." (But when queried about which type of device, typically only a third answered in the affirmative, so that 57 percent overall interest could be high.) A third "say they would read more books for fun if they had access to ebooks on an electronic device"--but any parent knows the disconnect between what kids say they would do and what they actually do! Meanwhile, most parents believe that electronic devices take away from time their kids spend reading, being physical, and engaging with family.
Six percent of the parents say they own a device used for reading, and 16 percent plan to buy one within the next year (remember that this was conducted in the spring).